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Land use, soil and resources - Engagement version

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Top­ic: Land use, soil and resources Engage­ment ver­sion August 2024

Require­ments addressed in this sec­tion Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended, regard­ing the issue addressed in this section.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(5)(a)the prin­cip­al phys­ic­al, cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, social, built her­it­age and envir­on­ment­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the district.
Sec­tion 15(5)(b)the prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used.

Links to evidence

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Sum­mary of evidence

Policy Con­text

Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000)

The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out in The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000). The first and second aims are of rel­ev­ance to the mat­ters dis­cussed in this paper:

  • To con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area.

  • To pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area.

The aims are all to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9(6) of the 2000 Act).

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4

This paper cov­ers a range of mat­ters relat­ing to Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4’s Sus­tain­able Places and Pro­duct­ive Places spa­tial priorities.

Policy 5 Soils seeks to pro­tect car­bon-rich soils, restore peat­lands and min­im­ise dis­turb­ance to soils from devel­op­ment. It states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should pro­tect loc­ally, region­ally, nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally val­ued soils, includ­ing land of less­er qual­ity that is cul­tur­ally or loc­ally import­ant for primary use.

Policy 9 Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and empty build­ings seeks to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate the reuse of brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and empty build­ings, and to help reduce the need for green­field devel­op­ment. It states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should set out oppor­tun­it­ies for the sus­tain­able reuse of brown­field land includ­ing vacant and derel­ict land and empty buildings.

Policy 33 Min­er­als seeks to sup­port the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of resources and min­im­ise the impacts of the extrac­tion of min­er­als on com­munit­ies and the envir­on­ment. It states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should sup­port a land­bank of con­struc­tion aggreg­ates of at least 10-years at all times in the rel­ev­ant mar­ket areas, whilst pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able resource man­age­ment, safe­guard­ing import­ant work­able min­er­al resources, which are of eco­nom­ic or con­ser­va­tion value, and take steps to ensure these are not ster­il­ised by oth­er types of development.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Scotland’s Third Land Use Strategy 2021 — 2026

The Land Use Strategy sets out our long-term vis­ion for sus­tain­able land use in Scot­land, its object­ives and key policies for deliv­ery. The Strategy con­tains a vis­ion for 2050, which is:

‘A Scot­land where we fully recog­nise, under­stand and value the import­ance of our land resources, and where our plans and decisions about land use will deliv­er improved and endur­ing bene­fits, enhan­cing the well­being of our nation.’

The vis­ion is sup­por­ted by three over­arch­ing land use objectives:

  • Land based busi­nesses work­ing with nature to con­trib­ute more to Scotland’s prosperity.

  • Respons­ible stew­ard­ship of Scotland’s nat­ur­al resources deliv­er­ing more bene­fits to Scotland’s people.

  • Urb­an and rur­al com­munit­ies bet­ter con­nec­ted to the land, with more people enjoy­ing the land and pos­it­ively influ­en­cing land use.

The Strategy does not set out new policies, instead it seeks to make land use more under­stand­able and access­ible to every­one, in sup­port of a shift in the way we think about land, towards more inclus­ive con­ver­sa­tions around how we use land and who should be involved in those decisions. From a devel­op­ment plan per­spect­ive, there­fore, Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 is the policy expres­sion of its vis­ion and objectives.

The Scot­tish Soil Frame­work 2009

The Scot­tish Soil Frame­work sets out the vis­ion for soil pro­tec­tion in Scot­land, and form­ally acknow­ledges the import­ant ser­vices soils provide to soci­ety. Its vis­ion is

‘That soils are recog­nised as a vital part of our eco­nomy, envir­on­ment and her­it­age, to be safe­guarded for exist­ing and future generations.’

The main aim of the Frame­work is to pro­mote the sus­tain­able man­age­ment and pro­tec­tion of soils con­sist­ent with the eco­nom­ic, social and envir­on­ment­al needs of Scotland.

The frame­work is sup­por­ted by the State of Scotland’s Soil Report (2011) which provides fur­ther evid­en­tial insight on the func­tions of soils, as well as on the nature and rel­at­ive import­ance of the threats to soil quality.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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From a devel­op­ment plan per­spect­ive, Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 is the policy expres­sion of the Soil Framework’s vis­ion and objectives.

Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy to 2045

The Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy sets out the Scot­tish Government’s ambi­tion for Scot­land to be Nature Pos­it­ive by 2030, and to have restored and regen­er­ated biod­iversity across the coun­try by 2045. The Strategy states that soil health will be improved by tack­ling loss of organ­ic car­bon, erosion, com­pac­tion, and the impacts of graz­ing, air pol­lu­tion and cli­mate change, and will func­tion as a nature-based solu­tion to flood­ing, erosion, and biod­iversity loss. Soils and spe­cies indic­at­ors also point to eco­sys­tem health improve­ments and reveal which drivers are work­ing pos­it­ively or neg­at­ively across hab­it­ats and areas.

Scotland’s Geo­di­versity Charter 2018 — 2023

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity is sig­nat­ory of Scotland’s Geo­di­versity Charter. The Charter encour­ages the pro­mo­tion and man­age­ment of Scotland’s geo­di­versity and bet­ter integ­ra­tion of geo­di­versity into policy and guid­ance, con­sist­ent with the eco­nom­ic, social, cul­tur­al and envir­on­ment­al needs of Scotland.

Sig­nat­or­ies com­mit to main­tain, pro­mote and enhance geo­di­versity as an integ­ral part of nature, recog­nising its con­tri­bu­tion to:

  • Scotland’s remark­able geoheritage.

  • His­tor­ic­al and cul­tur­al devel­op­ment, intel­lec­tu­al growth and cre­at­ive expression.

  • Sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and essen­tial bene­fits for society.

  • Sup­port­ing biod­iversity and address­ing biod­iversity loss.

  • Help­ing us under­stand Earth’s his­tory and provid­ing know­ledge that will help soci­ety to mit­ig­ate and adapt to cli­mate change and sea level rise.

  • Pub­lic health, qual­ity of life, nation­al well-being and recon­nect­ing people with nature.

The Charter was designed to be time-lim­ited. This approach accom­mod­ates peri­od­ic refo­cus­sing of the Charter to address addi­tion­al needs and fresh chal­lenges. The Charter is due for review and renew­al. Accord­ing to NatureScot, the Charter for 2024 — 2030, which is yet to be pub­lished, has a role in help­ing to address the nature and cli­mate emergencies.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022

The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is the Region­al Land Use Frame­work for the Nation­al Park. Five regions across Scot­land, includ­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park,

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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were involved in the Region­al Land Use Part­ner­ship and Region­al Land Use Frame­work pilot pro­gramme from 2021 – 2023.

It is still uncer­tain what, if any, powers Region­al Land Use Part­ner­ships will have in future to dir­ect pub­lic fund­ing and this is pivotal in terms of how this approach will func­tion. With­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, the Park Author­ity has been tasked with cre­at­ing the struc­tures neces­sary to oper­ate a part­ner­ship and frame­work and to tri­al how they might work in prac­tice. How­ever, dur­ing this pilot, the part­ner­ship and frame­work will not have powers to dir­ect pub­lic funding.

The stra­tegic approach to the part­ner­ship and frame­work pilot as rel­ev­ant to this Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan peri­od is set out below. The Park Author­ity will take fur­ther dir­ec­tion from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment on how the part­ner­ship and frame­work should oper­ate and, as such, the approach to part­ner­ships and frame­works may change in the future.

The Part­ner­ship Plan provides the stra­tegic con­text for the devel­op­ment of a pilot Region­al Land Use Frame­work for the Nation­al Park using a nat­ur­al cap­it­al approach. Nat­ur­al cap­it­al is defined with­in the Part­ner­ship Plan as the world’s stock of nat­ur­al resources, which includes geo­logy, soils, air, water and all liv­ing organ­isms. Nat­ur­al cap­it­al ​‘assets’ such as hab­it­ats and eco­sys­tems provide a wide range of bene­fits to human well­being, known as ​‘eco­sys­tem services’.

Nat­ur­al cap­it­al with­in the con­text of this paper includes mat­ters relat­ing to soil and geo­logy. Oth­er mat­ters, such are hab­it­ats and eco­sys­tems are covered in papers spe­cific­ally relat­ing to those matters.

The Part­ner­ship Plan con­tains a num­ber of spe­cif­ic actions relat­ing to the use of land use.

Object­ive A1. Net Zero, which seeks to ensure the Cairngorms Nation­al Park reaches net zero as soon as pos­sible, is likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on land use across the Nation­al Park, although it does not con­tain any spe­cif­ic meas­ures in itself, instead being delivered through a num­ber of the Part­ner­ship Plan’s oth­er object­ives, including:

  • A2. Wood­land expan­sion, which seeks to cre­ate a min­im­um of 35,000 hec­tares of new wood­land cov­er by 2045.

  • A3. Peat­land res­tor­a­tion, which seeks to have a min­im­um of 38,000 hec­tares of peat­land under res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment by 2045.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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  • A8. Farm­ing, which aims to reduce the car­bon foot­print of farms and con­serve car­bon rich soils.

  • A10. Eco­lo­gic­al net­work, which aims to con­nect hab­it­ats and eco­sys­tem across all dif­fer­ent types of land use.

  • A11 eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion, which seeks to have at least 50% of the Nation­al Park to be man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion by 2045.

  • A14. Green invest­ment, which seeks to see an increase in the amount of green fin­ance per annum for pro­jects that deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits, includ­ing, car­bon reduction.

A num­ber of these object­ives, not­ably, Object­ive A3 and A8, spe­cific­ally sup­port the pro­tec­tion and res­tor­a­tion of car­bon rich soils.

The Part­ner­ship Plan does not con­tain any spe­cif­ic object­ives or policies on min­er­als or geo­di­versity. How­ever, as geo­logy is an import­ant aspect of nat­ur­al cap­it­al and that the Part­ner­ship Plan, as the Region­al Land Use Frame­work, pro­motes a nat­ur­al cap­it­al approach, then these mat­ters are broadly included with­in its remit.

Com­munity action plans

The fol­low­ing action plans iden­ti­fied issues and / or pri­or­it­ies relat­ing to empty prop­er­ties and vacant and derel­ict land.

Blair Atholl Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030

The action plan con­tains the fol­low­ing priorities:

  • To bring vacant res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties back into use as afford­able housing.

  • Too pre­serve the cur­rently vacant build­ings at Blair Atholl rail­way station.

  • To invest in old build­ings and sites for com­munity benefit.

Grant­own Action Plan 2016

The action plan high­lights the fol­low­ing issues:

  • Empty com­mer­cial on the High Street and Square.

  • The former Strath­spey Hotel and vacant land to its rear.

Since the action plan was pub­lished the Strath­spey Hotel has been con­ver­ted into res­id­en­tial accom­mod­a­tion and the land to its rear has been par­tially developed with hous­ing. How­ever, there remains a small area of vacant land to the rear of these prop­er­ties for which the own­er­ship is unknown.

Our Com­munity: A Way For­ward Action Plan – Kin­gussie 2018

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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The action plan iden­ti­fies the fol­low­ing issues and priorities:

  • The issue of the num­ber of vacant shops on the High Street.

  • A pri­or­ity to regen­er­ate the High Street.

  • A pri­or­ity to regen­er­ate the old High­land Folk Museum site.

Baseline of land use, soil and resource matters

This paper sum­mar­ises a num­ber of mat­ters relat­ing to the use of land, soil and resources, including:

  • Land use

  • Vacant and derel­ict land

  • Brown­field land

  • Empty build­ings

  • Soil

  • Min­er­als and aggregates.

The prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used

Sec­tion 15 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should take into account the prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used.

The mat­ter of land use is covered in sev­er­al of the sec­tions of the evid­ence report, includ­ing those cov­er­ing, nat­ur­al her­it­age, hous­ing and eco­nom­ic mat­ters. These deal with spe­cif­ic aspects of land use and how they are to be addressed in the pre­par­a­tion of the Pro­posed Plan. This sec­tion provides an over­view of land use with­in the Nation­al Park and the broad changes that have taken place over a 28-year period.

There are numer­ous data­sets that cov­er land use with­in Scot­land. This report draws on data from the European Envir­on­ment Agency’s COR­INE Land Cov­er data­set. In its cur­rent form, the COR­INE Land Cov­er product offers a pan-European land cov­er and land use invent­ory with 44 them­at­ic classes, ran­ging from broad for­es­ted areas to indi­vidu­al vine­yards. The product is updated every six years, with the earli­est data­set com­piled in 1990 and the most recent update made in 2018. This allows for change to be mon­itored over time, although there are lim­it­a­tions in com­par­ing non-con­sec­ut­ive invent­or­ies due to sev­er­al factors, includ­ing meth­od­o­lo­gic­al changes. This is par­tic­u­larly pro­nounced when com­par­ing invent­or­ies that are more dis­tant in time (for example, com­par­ing 2000 and 2018 datasets).

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Accord­ing to the 2018 data­set (Fig­ure 1) the two dom­in­ant types of land cov­er with­in the Nation­al Park are moor­land and heath­land, which cov­ers around 2,000km² (44%) and peat bog, which cov­ers around 950km² (21%). The use of these land cov­er types can vary but may include agri­cul­ture and sport (e.g. grouse shoot­ing). Oth­er land that may prin­cip­ally be used for agri­cul­ture cov­ers around 590km² (13%), although around 315km² of this is clas­si­fied as nat­ur­al grass­land and is there­fore likely to be low intens­ity. Wood­land accounts for around 650km² (14%). Developed land accounts for approx­im­ately 10km² (0.2%).

Table 2 provides details of broad changes in land-cov­er between each of update of the COR­INE data­set. The changes do not rep­res­ent every change with­in these peri­ods and the later peri­ods are not dir­ectly com­par­able with the earli­er ones. Fig­ure 2 shows where these changes occurred. The primary changes relate to land man­age­ment with a rel­at­ively small amount attrib­uted to some form of development.

Table 2 Changes in land­cov­er in par­cels of land that 5 hec­tares (ha) or lar­ger accord­ing to COR­INE data 1990 – 2018. Some fig­ures may not sum due to rounding.

Land­cov­er change 1990 — 2000

Land­cov­er in 1990 (ha)Land­cov­er in 2000 (ha)
Con­i­fer­ous forest700.4 Moors and heath­land 49.1
Nat­ur­al grass­lands 29.3
Pas­tures 14.2
Trans­ition­al wood­land-shrub 608.0
Moors and heathland474.6 Con­i­fer­ous forest 474.6
Pas­tures87.7 Con­i­fer­ous forest 87.7
Trans­ition­al woodland-shrub718.0 Con­i­fer­ous forest 707.6
Nat­ur­al grass­lands 10.4

Land­cov­er change 2000 — 20

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